ARTICLE 7: A Brock H. Winters Novel

by D. L. Gray, David L. Gray

268 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 9, 2026

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway, and I'm so glad I did — this is exactly the kind of series opener that hooks you from the first chapter.

Brock H. Winters is a fascinating lead: an ex-con who did 38 months for embezzlement, now working as a licensed private investigator in Cleveland while also serving as a lay brother — "The Deacon." When insurance claims adjuster Theodore Reese vanishes and Brock discovers that Reese's records show the man never existed at all, the case pulls him into something far bigger and stranger than a simple missing-person job.

Gray writes Cleveland like he knows every street, and the mystery is layered without ever getting confusing. Brock's past hangs over everything he does, which gives the investigation real weight — this isn't a detective who has it all figured out, and that's what makes it work.

First in a planned series, and I'll absolutely be reading the next one. If you like crime fiction with a flawed, hard-to-put-down protagonist, start here.

[Deanna]

At first I was into this detective esque novel but 70 or so pages in I had to DNF. There is very little dialogue in this book it is mostly random quips like: A costume you keep is a costume that starts fitting, boots from the bin, broken in two sizes wrong by somebody else’s feet, which will change your gait if you let it, or the truth is the case had simply eaten the razor like everything else. All of those are in ONE paragraph. And sentences like those just keep coming.